1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling a user interface and an information processing apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to an operation processing method for operating an object displayed on a screen, using a touch panel that can identify concurrent pointing at a plurality of given positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventionally known touch screen includes a touch panel that can accept touch input and a screen that displays various objects. In order to copy or move an object on the touch screen, a processing method is commonly used in which a finger selecting an object is moved, and a command, such as copy or move, is selected at a position after the move operation (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-304256).
Furthermore, as a method performed only by operating an object on the touch screen, a method is proposed in which an operation of moving a finger selecting an object in the vertical direction is processed as a deletion or cut operation, and an operation of moving in the horizontal direction is processed as a copy operation (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-290585).
However, in a method for selecting a move or copy operation with a command as stated in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-304256, a touch operation for selecting a command has to be performed in addition to a touch operation on an object that is to be operated. Accordingly, there is a problem in that the intuitive operability of the touch screen is impaired.
Furthermore, in a method for processing a move operation as a copy operation depending on the move direction as stated in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-290585, since an object is not always disposed in a constant direction, it may be difficult for an operator to identify the direction, such as up, down, left, and right. Also, in the case where a plurality of operators operate an object from the front, rear, left, and right, it is difficult for each operator to point the object in an appropriate direction. Moreover, since the direction of a position where the object is disposed after the copy operation is not always the same as the direction pointed for the copy operation, an operation of changing the angle while dragging the object is necessary during the copy operation.